A manufacturing process of a semiconductor device includes a process of performing a vacuum process such as an etching process, a film forming process, an ashing process, or the like on a wafer which is a semiconductor substrate. Known as an apparatus to be used to perform these vacuum processes is a multi-chamber type vacuum processing apparatus having a configuration which connects a plurality of vacuum processing chambers to a common transfer chamber under a vacuum atmosphere and also connects the vacuum transfer chamber to a transfer chamber under an atmospheric pressure via a preliminary vacuum chamber serving as a load lock chamber.
Such vacuum processing apparatus is illustrated in FIG. 14. A wafer in a carrier 10 is taken out by a first transfer arm 12 in a transfer chamber 11 under a normal pressure atmosphere, and then is transferred by the first transfer arm 12 into a preliminary vacuum chamber 13 under a normal pressure atmosphere. Subsequently, after the atmosphere inside the preliminary transfer chamber 13 is turned into a specific vacuum atmosphere, the wafer is taken out of the preliminary vacuum chamber 13 by a second transfer arm 14, and is conveyed into a certain vacuum processing chamber 16, where a desired vacuum process is performed on the wafer, via a vacuum transfer chamber 15. Thereafter, the wafer is transferred into the preliminary vacuum chamber 13 under the vacuum atmosphere by the second transfer arm 14 via the vacuum transfer chamber 15. Then, after the atmosphere inside the preliminary vacuum chamber 13 is turned into a normal pressure atmosphere, the wafer is returned back into the carrier 10 by the first transfer arm 12 via the transfer chamber 11.
In the vacuum processing apparatus described above, a position alignment of the wafer is performed before the wafer is transferred into the vacuum processing chamber 16. For example, in the above-described vacuum processing apparatus, a position alignment mechanism 17 is connected to the transfer chamber 11. In such configuration, the wafer taken out of the carrier 10 by the first transfer arm 12 is transferred to the position alignment mechanism 17, and upon the completion of the position alignment, the wafer is conveyed into the preliminary vacuum chamber 13 by the first transfer arm 12.
However, if the position alignment mechanism 17 is disposed in an atmospheric transfer area, the first transfer arm 12 needs to perform the transfer of the wafer between as many as three locations: the carrier 10, the preliminary vacuum chamber 13 and the position alignment mechanism 17. Thus, the first transfer arm 12 suffers a great load, and a transfer throughput is deteriorated. Furthermore, since the wafer is conveyed from the first transfer arm 12 to the preliminary vacuum chamber 13, from the preliminary vacuum chamber 13 to the second transfer arm 14, and from the second transfer arm 14 to the vacuum processing chamber 16 in sequence, a wafer transfer is carried out between the first and second transfer arms 12 and 14 until the wafer reaches the vacuum processing chamber 16, and the number of times of wafer transfer increases. Therefore, there is a high likelihood that a misalignment of the wafer would take place while the wafer is being transferred, so it is apprehended that alignment accuracy of the wafer may be deteriorated when the wafer is conveyed into the vacuum processing chamber 16.
Meanwhile, there is also known a configuration in which a position alignment mechanism is installed in, for example, a vacuum transfer chamber. In such configuration, a second transfer arm provided in the vacuum transfer chamber conveys a wafer from a preliminary vacuum chamber into the vacuum transfer chamber and then transfers the wafer into the position alignment mechanism. After a position alignment of the wafer is completed, the wafer is transferred into a specific vacuum processing chamber by the second transfer arm. Accordingly, even in case that the position alignment mechanism is installed in a vacuum transfer area, the second transfer arm still has to perform the wafer transfer with respect to three locations: the preliminary vacuum chamber, the position alignment mechanism and the vacuum processing chamber. Thus, as in the case of installing the position alignment mechanism in the atmospheric transfer area, a deterioration of a throughput of the apparatus is inevitable.
Meanwhile, the wafer may sometimes need to be cooled or heated in the preliminary vacuum chamber for a subsequent process. Patent Reference 1 discloses a technique of cooling the wafer by introducing a gas into a sealed space where the wafer is maintained and of heating the wafer by means of a heating lamp disposed above the wafer. However, Patent Reference 1 is not conceived or adapted to solve the above-mentioned problems. That is to say, the problems cannot be solved by the configuration of Patent Reference 1.
[Patent Reference 1]                Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. H11-214478 (FIG. 3)        